Object Details

Title:

Artist/Maker(s):

Culture:

Date:

Medium:

Pen and brown ink, brush with brown wash, over red chalk, heightened with white gouache; incised line separating the two studies at the center of the sheet

Dimensions:

14.9 cm (5 7/8 in.)

Markings:

Markings: The marks of the following collectors appear either on the recto of the sheet or on the front of the old (Jonathan Richardson, Sr.) mat; Jonathan Richardson (L. 2184) lower left corner; William Esdaile (L. 2617, a monogram in brown ink) on the mat, just below the lower right corner of the gilt edging to the drawing; Benjamin West (L. 419, a dry stamp) in the lower right corner; John Barnard (L. 1419, a monogram in brown ink) on the mat, in the lower right corner of the border. On the other side of the mat, the mark of John Barnard is repeated. Marked in the center, in graphite, the collection mark "J.Th." (L. 1544), i.e. Jonathan Thane; and the collection mark of Charles Sackville Bale (L. 640).

Inscriptions:

Secondary Inscription: Inscribed on the back side of the mat at the upper right, in brown ink, by John Barnard, "No:720/6 by 5 1/4"; inscribed in the center, in graphite, in an unknown, late 19th-century hand, "from the collections of / Richardson / Benjamin West / John Barnard / W. Esdaile / Ch. S. Bale / Parmigianino"; also, the notes "Fairfax Murray Coll."; "25."; "cat. no. 106"

Department:

Drawings

Classification:

Drawings

Object Type:

Drawing

Object Number:

96.GB.317

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Parmigianino crammed two interlocking studies of the Holy Family, one drawn upside down from the other, onto this sheet of paper. At the bottom, the Madonna sits on the ground holding her right breast, while a female attendant beside her holds the Christ Child. When the sheet is turned the other way up, a variant of the same group appears, this time including the Madonna and Child, perhaps with Saint Elizabeth and the infant John the Baptist.

The two studies overlap at the center, showing how rapidly yet harmoniously the artist's train of thought sprang from one study to the other. The heads interlock across the middle of the sheet, and the bodies seem to mirror each other. Parmigianino then made his choice between the two, reinforcing with brush and wash the chiaroscuro in the more fully resolved one. An early drawings collector probably cut the sheet from a larger leaf of studies.

Parmigianino almost certainly made these studies in preparation for a print of The Adoration of the Shepherds.

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